Contents

Introduction

For the MAE277 course, each student is required to work in groups to disassemble, analyze, and reassemble a product. The product that Group 18 worked on throughout the semester was an inline-4 cylinder engine manufactured by General Motors Company. Group 18 consists of 5 engineering student whom disassembled the engine, analyzed the components of the product from engineering perspective, and finally, reassembled the product. This wiki page is created to record any information and knowledge Group 18 gained in this course.

Group members

Yong Chyi Lim – Group manager

Shinn Li – Technical writing expert

Jianzhou Qi – Operation coordinator

Yie Sing Teh – Technical expert

Cheng Siah Chua – Technical assistant

Executive Summary

For the Introduction to Mechanical Engineering Practical (MAE 277) course, Group 18 was assigned a joint project to study the GM In-Line 4-Cylinder Engine and produce a full report on our findings. There are five members in the group and the entire project comprises of five segments – planning, dissection, analysis, product explanation, and delivery.

In the planning stage, we got together to work out a schedule that is convenient for all of Group 18’s members. Each group member is also assigned a position or sometimes multiple roles. Besides that, the group that Group 18 shared the engine with was Group 7, so, a working schedule was established in this planning stage. An initial assessment on the project was made so that each member has a mental picture of what the project entails. In this assessment, a list of engineering constraints was derived and information about the product was sussed.
As the name suggests, in the dissection stage, Group 18 dismembered the engine. Each step was recorded; challenges as well as respective solutions were noted too.

Moving on, the analysis segment was sub-partitioned into two parts – product analysis and engineering analysis. In product analysis, the function, form, geometry, material, appearance, manufacturing methods, and complexity of each component was examined and documented. The engineering analysis is a more technical study of each component. Here, an inside derivation of how engineering knowledge is used in the design and testing stage of each product before finally being chosen to perform its function.

Subsequently, the product explanation segment is where Group 18 alongside Group 7 reassembles the product. In doing so, all challenges faces were noted and respective solutions were brainstorm after the reassembly. On a design innovation side, 3 design changes in components which results in an overall enhancement of the product on a subsystem level were proposed at a subsystem level with considerations of engineering constraints, environmental factors, economic factor, societal factor and global factor.

Finally, in the delivery segment, a full technical report was produced and an oral presentation to further elucidate the process as well as outcome of the project was given.